By Gina Eairheart
I was scrolling through the photos on a dating website one bright and sunny morning when I first saw his photo. I thought wow, what a handsome man and those teeth, so straight and pearly white! So I decided to take a look at his profile, he was into everything I ever wanted in a man, romantic movies, dinners, walks on the beach. A near perfect match for me, I thought to myself. The eloquence of his words in black and white, his grammar and punctuation was perfect. There was not one reason I could see to not reach out to him. So I wrote;
“Your profile is amazing! I would enjoy chatting with you sometime. -Lorraine”
He responded almost immediately, with attentive detail.
“I read your profile just now as well. And you seem to be just the lady I am looking for. Eternally Yours, Bobby”
We chatted online for several days in this manner he won me over with his charms and convinced me that I must meet this Bobby guy. And I hoped for the best when he made plans with me to meet him at the beach. We agreed that it should be the perfect setting.
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I sat there in the sand and watched the sun set over the twinkling water with its orange-red hues, reaching down to me with golden arms as if to wrap me up and hold me tight in the warmth I could already feel on my skin. I let my mind wander off to several different scenarios of what our meeting would be like. Would it be awkward? I wondered, or perhaps we would be so perfectly matched that it would feel like old friends meeting again after 20 years apart? I wasn’t sure of anything and the butterflies began their lazy flight in the pit of my stomach. I placed a firm hand on my belly to quell the involuntary spasms of the muscles there. I had gotten there early as we had decided that taking in the sunset would put me into a relaxed state of mind and make our meeting that much more romantic with just the right amount of longing. It was working, I already felt comfortable and anxious to meet him. My long sensuous legs stretched out and crossed in front of me, bare to the elements due to the jean miniskirt that hid very little of them. I had fixed my hair up into a loose bun with little tendrils falling down in curly strands of blonde hair. My deep blue eyes mimicked the water stretching for miles and miles in front of my view. I felt more alive than I had ever felt and could feel my own heart beat thumping rhythmically against my chest. As the sun went to sleep over the horizon, my heart thumped harder and the anticipation built to extreme highs and fearful lows. What if he is perfect for me, my life could change forever and if he isn’t what he claims to be, will I be so let down that depression consumes me? So I sat there waiting for what seemed like an eternity, perhaps I shouldn’t have come so early. Soon it was dark all around me; the stars came out to whisper their greetings. Twinkling against the darkened sky with their mother, she was the fullest moon possible. We had planned it that way, because a full moon was intoxicating.
I didn’t hear him walking up behind me. My senses were overloaded with the beauty of nature and my own anxious thoughts. The blindfold startled me as it wrapped tightly, quickly over my eyes. His voice was high-pitched when he whispered in my ear.
“Don’t move, don’t scream or I will slit your pretty little throat right here under our blanket of stars. You wouldn’t want to ruin this moment, now would you Lorraine?”
“No, but what are you doing? Is this you, Bobby?”
“Yes, it’s me darling, we are going to have a perfect first date darling, I am going to enjoy every minute of it.”
Then he grabbed my arms at the elbows and pulled me quickly to my feet. He was so strong and I oddly felt turned on and strangely safe. There was something familiar about his voice. Perhaps he reminded me a little of my ex-husband, who I loved so deeply. Until the day the bastard ran off with his red-headed little slut of a secretary. Bobby wrapped a heavy trench coat around my shoulders. Then I felt the metal cuff wrap around my left wrist and heard it click into place, then another click as he placed the other cuff around his right wrist. We were bound together and I could not escape even if I wanted to. We walked back to his car, he then took his cuff off of his own wrist and placed it on my right wrist in front of me and gently put me in the passenger seat of what must have been a sports car because it was low to the ground. I heard every tiny sound as he closed my door, walked around the car and got in the driver’s seat. Filled with anxiety and anticipation I reflected on my last day on earth. Soon I would not be alive anymore. Very soon he would end it all for me, but first he would make love to me. We were satisfying each-others’ needs, I needed to end this depression and he needed to end a life. We drove the back roads as planned until we found a nice little wooded area, miles away from any living human being. I had assured him that I would fight him off and scream for him. I would even manage to cry somehow, although this day was the best day of my pathetic life. Inside I was content as I screamed out in pain, the knife thick with my own blood slicing open my throat, I whispered to him.
“Thank you.”
Biography
Gina Eairheart is a student currently enrolled at State College of Florida. After a successful career in Architectural and Survey drafting for several years, she felt the need to further my education. Since enrolling in college, she has found out a lot about herself through the educational process. She thoroughly enjoy anything pertaining to the arts, which should have been no surprise due to her background; however, she had for most of my life suppressed the need for creating art and used her talents mostly for crafting as a hobby and undeniably for drafting plans for buildings and their land surveys. She found that writing and creating objects out of clay to be an enlightening experience that she will not soon let go by the wayside. She hopes you enjoy the stories and poems that come from this experience.